WELCOME TO THE WINTER 2023EDITION OF Cane Matters

It’s a busy time for our industry with the harvest and crush now well underway across the regions.

SRA staff have been out and about with our growers and millers at on-farm activities, the regional milling research seminars, industry events and via online workshops.

The well-attended Meringa Field Day and Australian Society of Sugar Cane Technologists (ASSCT) conference was held in Cairns in April. SRA Board members and I had the privilege of attending both events and viewing firsthand the tangible and innovative technologies and solutions that our staff are developing for the sugarcane industry.

The success and interest surrounding Harvest Mate has been remarkable. The free portal and app has captured the attention of growers and harvesting contractors keen to improve their havest's productivity and profitability. SRA’s free Online Sugarcane Nutrient Management (OSNM) training program has also hit the mark with more than 140 growers enrolled since it was launched in March.

At the ASSCT conference Australian Sugar Milling Council (ASMC) CEO, Rachele Sheard opened the event by exploring the challenges of Sugar Plus; our industry roadmap to unlock our bioeconomy opportunities. Dr Robert Speight, Director, Advanced Engineering Biology Future Science Platform, CSIRO also provided an enthusiastic keynote address about how the sugarcane industry might benefit from biofutures - now.

The 2023 conference provided an opportunity for SRA experts to present on a range of diverse research topics. I would like to acknowledge all staff for their contribution and congratulate those staff whose work was recognised with an ASSCT award. You can read a summary of the ASSCT highlights in this edition

Improving customer and stakeholder engagement has been a focus for SRA in the first half of 2023, with a two-stage program involving millers and key industry stakeholders. The insights and research priorities identified through this program will contribute to SRA’s research strategy and investment in the future.

This year’s SRA/QUT Regional Milling Seminars have shown the progress that is being made by the mills in continuing trials of innovative technology which has raised interest and proved promising thanks to the initial research conducted under SRA’s Small Milling Research Program investment fund.

Variety breeding and selection is the foundation of SRA’s work to improve the productivity, sustainability, and competitiveness of Australia’s sugarcane industry.

The publication of the six 2023-2024 Variety Guides is now underway with all levy payers to receive their copy in the coming weeks. I would personally like to thank the members of the Regional Variety Committees for their work in approving our new regional varieties for this season.

I hope you enjoy this edition of Cane Matters and hope the 2023 harvesting and crushing season proves to be bountiful during this period of record high sugar prices.

Roslyn Baker Chief Executive Officer

Research Awards And Scholarship Funding Rounds Close 31 August

Applications for SRA’s research awards and postgraduate scholarships are now open and will close on 31 August 2023.

Research Mission Manager Dr Tinashe Chiurugwi said the Research Awards enabled participants to undertake small projects which demonstrated clear benefits to the sugarcane industry. These projects could be used to develop research skills and/or explore innovative ideas about issues in the industry.

The Sugar Industry Postgraduate Research Scholarships enable qualified graduates to undertake Research Doctorate or Research Masters study and to facilitate research and training in areas of value to the Australian sugarcane industry. The scholarships are tenable at Australian universities and institutions for postgraduate research study.

Angela O’Keefe was a recipient of an SRA PhD scholarship in 2019. Now in the final year of her studies at the University of Queensland Angela says her PhD project ‘aims to deliver information to assist plant breeders develop cane varieties that have good quality fibre characteristics and to remove the clones with poor fibre quality measurements early in the breeding program’.

“This will allow faster generation of new improved varieties to be delivered to the sugarcane industry,“ Angela said.

“Ultimately millers will benefit from the reliable development of varieties with improved fibre quality and an increase in mill efficiency from a guaranteed supply of varieties with good milling properties.

“The SRA operational grant and stipend top-up has allowed me to remain a full-time student devoted entirely to my research and to pay for experiment-associated expenses at the University of Queensland.”

After her PhD Angela hopes to be an experimental scientist in sugarcane research.